Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA), 98-06-03

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From: The Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) Home Page at <http://www.telpress.it/ata>

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CONTENTS

[01] Government approves draft laws and decisions

[02] BSCE countries to discuss economic ties

[03] Around 50,000 people receive unemployment benefits

[04] SP, DP urge measures to help Kosovars arriving in Albania

[05] Head of Inquiry Commission prepares alternative report on unrest

[06] DP deputy chairman says SP to reconsider stay in power if a loser in elections

[07] Some 2000 other Kosovars arrive in Tropoje

[08] Kosovars continue to flee into Albania from Kosova

[09] Ethnic cleansing outlining division of Kosova territory - KMDLNJ

[10] New aid contingent for refugees from Kosova

[11] Albanian President Meidani discusses with Rumania's Ambassador situation in the region

[12] USD quoted at lek 155,20

[13] CIA uncovered four Islamic terrorists in Albania in 1994 - Gazeta Shqiptare

[14] Dajti Hotel is state owned still

[15] Five foreigners turned back from Albanian Rinas airport

[16] Merciless Serb violence brings to Albania thousands of Kosova refugees

[17] Procedures to issue green cards started

[18] Detention for French killer

[19] SP calls on international community to mediate in ending conflict in Kosove

[01] Government approves draft laws and decisions

The Council of Ministers examined and approved the decisions "On expropriation in the public interest of the real properties affected by the Elbasan-Rrogozhine segment of the Durres-Kapshtice corridor", "On the composition and functioning of the State Committee for the restitution and compensation of the former owners' properties," as well as "On allocating funds to the political parties for the electoral campaign for local government bodies". /a.ke/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[02] BSCE countries to discuss economic ties

Officials from Tirana said that 11 countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) region would discuss extending economic links on Thursday and Friday.

The main point of the summit is to be the signing of a declaration in which the group will be upgrade into an international regional economic organisation.

Among the other heads of states to attend the meeting is Russian Prime Minister and Turkish President.

The 11 BSEC countries are Albania, Armenia, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Rumania, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Bulgaria. /gen/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[03] Around 50,000 people receive unemployment benefits

Despite the increase of employment rate recently with 10,000 people through public work projects approved by the ministry of Labour, the unemployment rate is still high and as a result the number of people receiving unemployment benefits is big.

Also there are 150,000 families that receive welfare and some 30,000 others disabled institutionalized under house conditions. /gen/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[04] SP, DP urge measures to help Kosovars arriving in Albania

"An emergency sessions should discuss the measures taken by the government for the arrivals from Kosova," the head of the SP parliamentary group, Pandeli Majko, said at Tuesday's parliamentary session.

This session is planned for Wednesday.

Albania's Prime Minister Fatos Nano on Tuesday, at a government meeting, asked priority treatment for the arriving Kosovars by providing them with aid in food, medicine and clothes, also in cooperation with the international organisations for refugees.

Deputy Prime Ministers Islami and Fino, as well as the Defence, Public Order, Foreign, Health and Agriculture and Food Ministers reported at the meeting on the situation on the northeastern border.

The participants in the meeting decided that the presence of all- level governmental teams in the northeastern zones be increased, contacts and programmes of cooperation with NATO intensified.

They also asked that the Contact Group takes measures that ethnic cleansing stops in Kosova. /s.s/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[05] Head of Inquiry Commission prepares alternative report on unrest

Spartak Ngjela, head of the commission, has prepared a report of his own, which will be discussed and voted by the Commission on Wednesday.

"I prepared a report which is concretely different from that of the Commission," Ngjela told ATA, declining to say where these changes consisted.

"Ngjela's report does not unveil the direct responsibilities of those who caused the January-June 1997 tragedy, of ex-President Sali Berisha and cast of the statesmen or of the former-officers," Spartak Braho, the socialist member of the commissions, told ATA on Tuesday.

"It is normal to have another report. Although the facts gathered are the same, Ngjela has a different conception from that of the commission," said Braho.

However, only one report will be presented in Parliament on Thursday, that which will gain the majority of the commission's votes. /s.s/pas/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[06] DP deputy chairman says SP to reconsider stay in power if a loser in elections

The Democratic Party (DP) deputy chairman Genc Pollo has asked the SP to reconsider its stay in power depending on the result of the partial local elections, due on June 21.

"If the Socialist Party fails in these elections, then it should reconsider its stay in power," said Pollo at a meeting with DP members and sympathizers in Vlore on Tuesday on the occasion of the beginning of the electoral campaign.

The DP candidate for the Vlore city mayor, doctor Servet Kojdheli, former director of the Vlore hospital, was presented at the meeting.

The candidatures of the Socialist party, Democratic party, Republican party, National Unity party as well as three independent candidates have been put up for mayor in this city.

The Vlore city municipality, for more than one year, since the resignation of its democrat mayor Gezim Zilja, has been run by two co- mayors, representatives of the SP and DP.

Vlore has been the flashpoint city of all-national protests, which led to the resignation of the Democratic Party's government last spring.

None of the DP candidates could win in the June 29 elections in this distrcit last year for deputies to the People's Assembly. /s.s/pas/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[07] Some 2000 other Kosovars arrive in Tropoje

"Some 1500-2000 inhabitants of Kosova villages entered the territory of Albania overnight," the secretary of the prefecture, Milaim Cengu, told ATA.

Meanwhile the Tropoje commune is overcrowded, which has made the arrivals from Kosova to go 10 km farther to the south, to the Bajram Curri town, the Tropoje district's main centre.

A Tropoje inhabitant, Tahir Syneci, says that there are some 20 Kosovars in almost every family.

Although the High Commission for Refugees on Tuesday brought here an aid of 25 tonnes, mainly foodstuff, this is not enough as the number of the arrivals keeps increasing.

Isa Duka, 29, engineer from Drenovci of the Decan commune, arrived on Tuesday evening and says that on the highland near the border there are some 3000 other people from Decan, Junik, Gline and other towns.

He also says that many villages of these towns have almost ceased do exist. A real genocide, with clear aims of ethnic cleansing, is being exercised against the Kosova people, adds Duka.

He says that there are over 50 000 inhabitants of the Decan commune who are on the mountains, walking towards the border for Albania.

Duka says that he, himself, has stayed for weeks on end in basements, but now, they too, have been ruined by the Serbian forces' shelling.

He says that many have been killed, but as result of incessant attacks by the Serbian army, their burial has been impossible.

Meanwhile, today, according to the secretary of the Kukes prefecture, a governmental team is expected to arrive in Tropoje. Representatives from the Albanian Helsinki Committee as well as Zekiria Canaj are found side by side with the Kosovar arrivals.

According to local authorities the exact number of the arrivals is unknown as part of them have directly joined the families of their relatives, while another part has passed the night outdoors.

Over the first two days of this week the number of the arrivals in the Tropoje district from Kosova has reached nearly 3500. /s.s/pas/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[08] Kosovars continue to flee into Albania from Kosova

Kosova Albanian continued overnight to flee to Albania from Kosova.

Sources from Gjakove say that Serbian forces have brought under tough control the villages of the border belt, not to allow Albanians' infiltration into safer zones of Kosova.

People are leaving their houses engulfed by flames and ruined by shelling and are forced to head for the border, for Albania, the sources say. /p.ta/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[09] Ethnic cleansing outlining division of Kosova territory - KMDLNJ

Nushi, speaking at a news conference, the second in the last five days, said that the displacement of the Kosovars from the zones threatened by Serbian attack is assuming increasingly large proportions.

"The houses, mosques, churches and other premises of the less threatened places of Kosova are too small to shelter the growing number of the people who have now begun to look for shelter in Tropoje, Bajram Curri and other villages of Albania," said Nushi.

He also pointed to the intensification of Albanians' departure from Kosova towards the Western Europe. He said that ethnic cleansing of the Albanians from their lands has now assumed the physiognomy of a grave social phenomena, which recently has been characteristic mostly for the threatened zones of Kosova, outlining a strange division of the Kosova territory.

The Serbian regime, the KMLDNJ head said, is employing another form of violence: they are facing the Albanians with hunger and lack of foodstuff by not allowing access of humanitarian aid.

He added that the defence and development of democracy is also linked with the functioning of the Kosova parliament and government, because, he said, KMDLNJ foresees a greater escalation of the situation of grave consequences for Albanians.

Asked about the number of the refugees fleeing to Albania and other countries from Kosova, Nushi said that for the time being there are no exact data. /p.ta/pas/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[10] New aid contingent for refugees from Kosova

The contingent consists of food aid such as rice, sugar, tinned food, packages of food for children, medical equipment and medicine.

A Health Ministry team composed of five doctors, specialists of the Health Ministry, headed by deputy Minister Fatmir Ibrahimi, which has been in Tropoje since Monday, has noticed that the situation has become difficult because of the constant arrival of the inhabitants from the villages of Kosova whose number so has exceeded 3000.

In general their health state is not alarming, except the 1-12 age- group, with cases of diarrhea and symptoms of illness because of fatigue. Among the other age-groups there have been cases of high blood pressure and complication of the general health state due to earlier pathological diseases.

The Tropoje hospital has been on full alert to receive the sick, but so far, there have been no cases of mortality in any of the age-groups.

The registration of the refugees, he said, remains a problem as they decline to be identified for safety reasons.

The Ministry of Health, as the first institution that has sent the aid team to the district of Tropoje, has called on the other ministries to coordinate actions to cope with the situation. s.s/pas/lm/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[11] Albanian President Meidani discusses with Rumania's Ambassador situation in the region

The President's spokesman said that the two senior officials voiced their concern over the escalation of the situation in Kosove and its consequences for Albania and other countries of the region.

Romanian Ambassador considered as an important factor for the consolidation of the relations between the two countries the historical ties and the presence of the Albanian community in Romania and that of Vllahachian origin in Albania. The Rumanian Ambassador handed over to the President of the Republic a message of the President of Rumania, Emil Kostandinesku. The message, said the spokesman, carried also an invitation for President Meidani to take part in an international activity to be held in Rumania.

The relations between Albania and Rumania have kept consolidating. Recently the Rumanian government donated 10 thousand wheat to Albania, an amount which was unloaded some days ago in Durres. Also the Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo visited Romania recently and met with Rumania's highest authorities./s.s/pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[12] USD quoted at lek 155,20

So $1 = 155,20 lek, lossing 0,20 points compared with yesterday's 155, 40 lek.

The DM was traded for 87,30 lek, lossing 0,20 points compared to yesterday's 87,50 lek.

The ITL (1000) was traded for 88,60 lek lossing 0,10 points compared with yesterday's 88,70 lek.

GRD (100) was exchanged for 50,40 lek, lossing 0,10 points compared with yesterday's 50,50

The Swiss Franc was traded for 104,30 lek lossing 1,00 points compared with yesterday's 105,30 lek and so on.

Wednesday exchange rates

Currency Average exchange rates

USD 155,20 lek DM 87,30 lek ITL (1000) 88,60 lek GRD (100) 50,40 lek SFR 103,20 lek FRF 23,10 lek GBP 220,20 lek JPY (100) 111,10 lek NLG 73,20 lek /gen/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[13] CIA uncovered four Islamic terrorists in Albania in 1994 - Gazeta Shqiptare

The paper writes that in spring 1994, at the time when the "process Omonia' (trial for four leaders of Omonia, organization of the Greek minority in Albania) was being held, French secret agencies informed Albanian SHIK that four Islamic terrorist suspects had arrived in Albania. "The message of the French did not receive a reply for a long time, or in some cases it received some stereotyped answers of the computer "We have no reports," writes Gazeta Shqiptare, adding that later the French "gave up" and left CIA to deal with the issue.

The paper writes that the messages that followed from the U.S. espionage agencies received the same negative replies by the then Albanian authorities and that at that time CIA wrote the last message with the names of the suspects, the place where they were staying in Tirane and the number of the telephone they used to communicate with their senior authorities. "After this message, this history was covered by smog. It is common knowledge only the fact that relations between the Albanians and the Americans began to aggravate," writes Gazeta Shqiptare.

With regard to this matter, Gazeta recalls that some months ago, the press wrote that successors to Bashkim Gazidede (former SHIK chairman) were investigating into "some suspected histories of powerful financing from a rich Arab state," which, as the paper writes, had filled the SHIK cash boxes."

Speaking of Gazidede, the paper writes that "surprisingly, he is sheltered in another Arab country."

Police arrested on Tuesday the French citizen Claude Cheik- Ben-Abdel Kader, who killed with an automatic rifle his Albanian interpreter Leonard Vangjeli, 20. The killing happened in the house the French citizen was hiring in Tirana.

Police checked the house of the French citizen and found an automatic rifle and a light machine-gun the French kept without permission.

Police said that Kader, 27, a Moslem French, arrived in Albania some days before as a photoreporter. He had a simple identification paper, not a passport.

The victim Angjeli was interpreting for the French citizen while attending studies in the Tirana University. xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[14] Dajti Hotel is state owned still

Albturism representatives have reacted against press articles that Dajti Hotel is sold to an Italian company for $3 million, by saying that Albturism company is preparing the necessary documents to sell hotels under its management.

Dajti Hotel managed to escape the wave of destruction last year, when state run hotels in Durres, Saranda and Pogradec beaches were totally demolished.

Located in the center of Tirana in a 9,000 m2 area, the hotel is one of the oldest in Albania, constructed since 1943.

The hotel has 89 rooms with a 120-beds capacity. /gen/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[15] Five foreigners turned back from Albanian Rinas airport

"The reason that Moroccan nationals O Vahlishter, 27, A Celirami, 22, H Nabat, 31, the Turkish E Orsu, 30, and the Pakistanese, M Muhamet, 23, were not allowed to enter Albania was that they carried not regular identification papers," the spokesman of the police department of the prefecture of Tirane said.

The five nationals came to Albania by a Turkish Istanbul-Tirane airline and were send back to Istanbul with the same plane.

Police arrested on Tuesday in Tirane a Moslem French living in London for killing his Albanian interpreter, student Leonard Vangjeli, 20.

The French citizen arrived in Albania some days ago as a photoreporter, without an international passport.

Police checked the house of the French citizen and found an automatic rifle and a light machine-gun the French kept without permission. /s.sh./pas/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[16] Merciless Serb violence brings to Albania thousands of Kosova refugees

TIRANE, June 3 (ata) - By M Sinemati: The war in Bosnia which started at the beginning of spring, 1992 assumed its real proportions when the Serb forces of Bosnia strongly supported by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and paramilitary forces led by criminals of Arkan type started savage ethnic cleansing operations in the broad areas with non-Serbian population in Bosnia, by hitting and setting on fire whole villages, by killing without distinction men, women, elderly people and children, with the main aim that non-Serb population flee and evacuate these village an a Serb population be settled instead.

Since Serbia, like the wolf that changes its spots but not its habits, hence, since the regime of Milosevic has not renounced its dream of the Great Serbia, it is using against the Albanians in Kosove the same criminal violence as in Bosnia. Serbian special police and units of the Serbian army are using against Albanian population, mainly unarmed or badly armed, aircraft, tanks, armoured vehicles, big cannons, shells etc., and are hitting without distinction, as is seen through TV coverage of the situation there, homes, and killing innocent people, women, children, and elderly people who, without doubt, are not UCK (National Liberation Army) "terrorists."

It is clear that the so-called Serb military-police operation against UCK bases in Kosove serves only as a cover for the main aim of the Belgrade regime, which willingly or unwillingly, came finally to light: ethnic cleansing which aims to make Albanian population flee from there at any cost.

By using most criminal violence, the Serbian regime has managed to expel from their hearths inhabitants of the Albanian border villages. According to official figures from the Albanian respective authorities, the number of the Albanian refugees of Kosova who have crossed the northeastern border of Albania to escape Serbian massacres amounts to 2 000, but some other sources say this number is 4 000, while many other Albanian families are on the way from Kosove to Albania.

Also the latest statements of some American senior officials, according to which the word is for ethnic cleansing, prove of the concrete elements of the Serb policy for ethnic cleansing. A senior American official, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters today in Washington that according to reports from Kosove, "there are signs of a coordinated effort for cleansing in a number of villages along the border with Albania, and that taking part in this operation are, along with the special police forces, also units of the Yugoslav army." The abovementioned American official added that he had reports that homes, shops and other properties of the Albanians in those villages were set ablaze. "Albanian people of those villages are urged to leave," he said.

In these conditions, one could hardly believe in the latest call spread by the half-legal Serb press centre, with headquarters in Prishtine, demanding, in the name of the Serb authorities, that Albanian inhabitants return to their homes. "Authorities guarantee the security of all the citizens, while they must renounce any terrorist act," says the call addressed to the people of the villages near Gjakove and Decan and broadcast by Reuters news agency and the AFP. But the fact that Albanian people of those border zones are fleeing frightened by the miseries of the Serbian forces, not taking into account the cold and some scores of kilometers to walk on foot through mountain paths to reach Albania, shows that while Serbs are carrying out ethnic cleansing ,the Serbian propaganda machine is working to deceive the international public opinion as it did during the Bosnia War.

According to OSCE, whose mission is monitoring the Albanian-Yugoslav frontier, 2 500 Albanian refugees have come to Albania and some 3 000 others are expected to arrive in the coming days. Albanian sources of Kosove say there are 50 000 Albanians who have fled Kosova. xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[17] Procedures to issue green cards started

Athens, June 3 (ATA) - May 31 was the deadline for foreign immigrants to be registered in Greece and procedures to provide green cards for them have started.

After this date no registration procedures will carry on but only implementation of steps to legalize that part of immigrants who have registered, sources from the Greek ministry of Labour and Social Affairs reported.

According to recent figures from this ministry the number of registered immigrants is 365,000, where 45 percent of them are Albanians.

Although the number of registered Albanian immigrants is 164,000, (excluded are family members and Albanian citizens of Greek descent) it seems that many other thousands have remained out of these lists, knowing the fact that some 500,000 Albanians work in Greece.

Yet there is no official announcement what will happen with the rest of immigrants, who are blameless for not being able to register in due time.

Kosta Gazeli from the Albanian embassy in Athens told ATA that there is a project according to which the card holders can travel freely to motherland on condition of return to Greece within two-month from their leave.

Thus for the registered ones will be issued two types of green cards, valid from 1 to 3 years and others up to five years.

The first are conditioned by the duration period in Greece, market's demand regarding candidates occupation, the unemployment rate for that kind of occupation and his or her duration period at the same employer.

While in order to gain the five-year green card necessary documents that officially verify the five-year soujorne in Greece and the declaration of a fund for living means should be provided.

While a special procedure will be implemented for Albanian citizens of Greek origin, when June 1st marks the day of their legalization procedures.

The process is forecasted to end November 30 and is expected to provide a special three-year green card with the right of renewing it for those who certify with an official document their origin.

June first marks the procedures' start /gen/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[18] Detention for French killer

The prosecutor of the case, Ariston Puka, accused the French national with "premeditated killing and illegal possession of arms."

"It is true that my client belongs to a Moslem sect for which he is sworn to death, but the motives of the killing are merely personal differences with the victim," declared the defence attorney of the French, Mark Pellumbi. According to him, the client denies categorically his origin from an Islamic country, saying that he is a Moslem French.

According to Kader's testimony which oppose one another, the killing happened for personal motives after a quarrel for a TV set, but investigation into the event is continuing.

Police found in the home the French was hiring besides the automatic rifle with which he made the killing also a light machine gun, both illegally possessed.

According to preliminary reports police have gathered, Kader arrived in Albania some days ago as a photoreporter, without an international passport and he belongs to a Moslem sect. He had only an identification paper but not a passport. The victim, Vangjeli, was an interpreter for Kader and at the same time continued studies in the Tirane University. /a.ke/mima/xh/

Albanian Telegraphic Agency

[19] SP calls on international community to mediate in ending conflict in Kosove

"SP calls on international factor, the entire world opinion, U.S. and all other decision-making chancellories to mediate as soon as possible and with all necessary means so that war in Kosove be stopped and conflict which Milosevic has put on the road of the tragedy of Bosnia-Herzegovina, be ended," said on Wednesday in a news conference the SP Secretary for International Relations, Maqo Lakrori.

SP considered Declaration of Foreign Ministers of NATO for possible deployments of its troops in the Balkans as a very serious warning to the Serb policy of revenge and bloodshed in Kosove.

SP said that it has treated the question in its forums and in its meetings with sister parties in the Socialist International.

Thousands of children, women and wounded people have left their ruined and burnt homes in Kosova, with 90 per cent of its population Albanian and have rushed to Albania.

Local authorities of Albania, with instructions from the government and in cooperation with representatives of the international respective structures, are taking care of the new comers.

SP praised "the resistance of the Kosova brothers, who although knowing that Albania is a reliable shelter for their lives, are facing and crushing the crazy effort of the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in Kosove to expel from their territories some 2 million Albanians."

Albanian parliament will hold an urgent session on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the situation in Kosove and the assistance for the comers from Kosova, during which cabinet ministers will report for the measures they have adopted accordingly. /a.ke/mima/xh/

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